Documents shed new light on probe of ex-Oxnard College president

Documents released recently about former Oxnard College President Luis Sanchez shed new light on the investigation that led to his firing six months ago though he countered that they do not provide the full context for his dismissal.

The 90-page release of text messages and emails by employer Ventura County Community College District came after a series of public records requests by the Ventura County Star and include “flirtatious” messages from Sanchez to colleagues during his tenure at the college.

The records span from 2019 through spring 2022 and contain a number of instances of Sanchez dishing out physical compliments.

"I like the soft light of your home office on you," Sanchez texted one individual.

"I think you are highly efficient and considerate, warm, and lovely," he emailed another. "Had I met you when we were both single, I would have probably made a nuisance of myself trying to catch your attention!"

In a Nov. 1 letter to investigators, and in later interviews with The Star, Sanchez said he regarded some of his conversations as flirtatious. But, he wrote in the letter, none of the message recipients had asked him to "cease any further flirtatious communications or compliments and discuss only professional matters with them."

Sanchez said in an interview this month that some of the messages "were embarrassing in retrospect," and that he wished he'd worded some things differently.

"I had no intent to harm anybody, to oppress anybody, to take advantage of a position that I held," he said. "And there's no evidence that I have."

Sanchez said that there was a "cultural and generational" difference behind his conduct.

"The way I grew up considers it courtly to compliment women," he said. "It does not include lewd behavior. It does not include inappropriate pressuring of anybody. I'm respectful with people."

Prolonged investigation

Former Chancellor Greg Gillespie placed Sanchez on paid administrative leave in May 2022, saying the district was investigating two complaints of unlawful but not criminal "harassment, including on the basis of sex and gender" and one complaint of "misconduct pertaining to the Oxnard College Foundation" against Sanchez.

The ensuing investigation, with Culver City-based attorney Sima Salek, took months.

Sanchez protested from the beginning, saying he believed the complaints were retaliations sparked by a policy conflict with Oxnard College Foundation officials. By early October, after the district extended proceedings multiple times, Sanchez said he'd "had it," and announced he'd be retiring on Jan. 31.

But investigators completed their work by December, Sanchez said. Trustees fired him on Jan. 17 — two weeks before he was set to retire.

Sanchez said that while the final investigative report only covered material related to the trio of complaints, investigators also reviewed his exchanges with individuals beside the three complainants. The final report was focused only on his email and text messages with complainants, he said.

In his letter to investigators, Sanchez said the probe had been done in "bad faith."

"This was a choreographed and strategic assault," he wrote, adding that no complaints had been filed about him before he locked horns with Oxnard College Foundation officials over a funding proposal.

The foundation's board denied that funding in a deadlocked vote before board President Mike Barber accused Sanchez of “harassment” and “establishing a series of threats to the foundation," board minutes show.

Barber told The Star in July 2022 that the college district was reviewing those allegations. "They're doing a thorough investigation," he said.

Investigative report never released

District officials did not share information about the decision to fire Sanchez and rejected a public records request for the final report compiled by the attorneys who conducted the investigation, citing attorney-client privilege. Sanchez also declined to share the report, with his attorney, Steve Blum, saying complainants could be too easily identified.

But on June 24, The Star's requests for public records related to the investigation garnered the latest round of documents.

The new records include nearly 90 pages of Sanchez's emails and texts. Pilar Morin, an attorney for the district, said those pages help fulfill the Star's request for documents "reviewed by district staff or independent investigators in the course of investigations into complaints against former president Sanchez."

Through a spokesperson, district officials refused both an interview request and to answer questions about the substance, scope and motive of the investigation, saying the district was "not able to respond" without risking the "confidentiality of the people involved."

As such, it's not clear whether the documents released were related to the complainants in the investigation or separate and distinct.

Names and identifying information of individuals beside Sanchez were redacted from the recent batch of files, but most exchanges touch on college business and a number of respondents' emails contain district branding.

The newly released messages do not come with any analysis from district staff or investigators. Some messages may have been flagged for review but not ultimately been found to be improper or been included in the investigators' report.

None of the messages reviewed by the Star were sexually explicit, and Sanchez said that the complaints did not include allegations of unwanted physical contact or requests for "quid pro quo" sexual favors.

Sanchez said investigators didn't find merit in the foundation-related complaint, but did find some of his communications related to the other two complaints "flirtatious."

The recently released documents affirm his own description.

"Thank you beautiful," he wrote in response to what appears to be a texted photo of him. "And now it's only right that I should take your photos. Perhaps a hundred or so?"

"You have loftier goals than I do," he texted after an individual asserted that a "martini or two" could help solve the world's problems. "I was thinking of a moonlight walk on the beach with you..." he wrote.

This month, Sanchez touted what he said was a previously "sterling" performance record and said the district could have responded to the report with additional training or mediation before jumping to termination.

Blum, a former district trustee and teacher union president, said some of Sanchez's messages were "better left unsaid," but would, in his experience, have normally meant lighter punishments than dismissal. "They're always judgment calls," he said.

"It's my humble opinion that the district overreacted to the things that occurred with (Sanchez)," he said. "But also used it as payback."

Isaiah Murtaugh covers education for the Ventura County Star in partnership with Report for America. Reach him at isaiah.murtaugh@vcstar.com or 805-437-0236 and follow him on Twitter @isaiahmurtaugh and @vcsschools. You can support this work with a tax-deductible donation to Report for America.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Documents shed new light on probe of ex-Oxnard College president